


Self-Conscious

by indevan



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Body Image, M/M, Rimming, references to
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-12
Updated: 2014-06-12
Packaged: 2018-02-04 10:04:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1775155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indevan/pseuds/indevan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even the Exalt gets self-conscious about himself sometimes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Self-Conscious

The mirror was a foul invention.

Chrom regarded himself in it, turned sideways.  He wasn’t used to having a mirror so readily accessible.  Before, at war, on the move, there was never one in his tent.  Now that he was back home in Ylisstol, he had one in his chambers.  A full-length mirror with a hand-carved mahogany frame that was a gift from Khan Flavia.  He reached his hands behind himself and pressed them against his rear.  Robin had come back to himself.  Finding him after Grima, he had been afraid that the man had lost his memory again but he hadn’t.  He was still the Robin he had fought beside, the man who sacrificed himself for everyone else.  However, he was also the man who caused this most recent issue.

He stared at his backside, a frown on his face.  He stared at it so intently that he didn’t realize that someone had slipped into his window until he saw the reflection appear over his shoulder in the mirror.  Chrom jumped in surprise when another face popped up next to him, just a hair’s width higher than his shoulder.

“What’s up, Blue?” Gaius drawled.

Chrom relaxed a fraction, the surprise at his lover’s arrival tempered by the embarrassment of him walking in on him staring at himself.  He hadn’t heard Gaius come in but that was to be expected.  A thief was a thief was a thief and Gaius loved climbing through his window rather than using the door like a normal person.

“Nothing.”

He turned from him, aware for the first time that he was standing in only his smallclothes.  He slipped back towards his bed to grab a blanket but Gaius reached out a hand to stop him.  It gently, loosely held his wrist and the touch sent a spark up his arm.

“Nothing I’ve never seen before.” His eyes bore into Chrom’s, blank but somehow also questioning. “What’s wrong?”

Right, Gaius had walked in on him checking himself out in the mirror in nothing but his smalls.  He sighed and dropped his arm so it fell from Gaius’s hold.

“It’s foolish.”

Chrom looked down, staring at his stockinged feet.  Right, Frederick’s insistence that he never go without socks in the palace.  He was standing in his smalls and socks and looking like a right fool in front of his lover.

“Tell me.” Gaius’s voice was a low rumble, that same pitch that made him shiver and shudder but, now, weighed down with embarrassment, it just made him sigh.

“Robin.” He lifted his head and frowned.  No, that wasn’t right. “Robin made a joke today.  About...my rear.  And how I don’t have one.”

Gaius blinked at him for a moment, not speaking.

“And?” he said finally.

Chrom’s face felt on fire. “And what?”

“And so what?  You’ve got no arse, yeah.  Have you ever heard me complain?” He arched a brow and added, “Has Olivia complained?”

Chrom bit his lip and looked to the side.  Had he been overreacting?  He fiddled his fingers together, feeling foolish.

“N-no.”

“Well...Olivia wouldn’t say ‘shit’ with a mouth full so I guess it’s just me, huh?  Me talkin’ about your arse?”

Unconsciously, he wrinkled his nose at Gaius’s blunt, gross comment.  He was used to them but he would never like them.

“Just ‘cause you don’t have an ass like Bubbles doesn’t mean yours isn’t any good.”

Like Robin’s?  That confused him.  Robin wore baggy robes almost all of the time, how did Gaius know about his backside?

“We’d end up in the baths together more than once,” he explained. “Got an eyeful of it a few times.  It’s real nice.  Plump...juicy, perky.  A regular bubble butt, y’know?”

Chrom’s brow knit.  He was feeling a bit jealous.  A bit jealous and--

“Wait, _that’s_ why you call him Bubbles?!”

He chuckled and said, “Yeah, you can see that thing outlined even in his overcoat, it’s so plush.  Don’t make that face, Blue, yours is the only arse for me.”

Gaius grinned, teeth slightly parted in the center over the stick of his lollipop.

“It isn’t...that.  I’ve been thinking about it since the Hotrealm.  It’s...so flat.” Chrom sighed.  This was futile.  How was he supposed to explain how self-conscious he was about it to someone as confident as Gaius?

He scrutinized him with those unflinching gray eyes--thief’s eyes meant to pinpoint things others cannot see--and reached up to pull the lollipop out of his mouth.

“I get it,” he said, gesturing with the spit-covered end of his sweet. “Even if I like it, you’re still embarrassed, yeah?”

Chrom nodded.  So he got it?  Gaius put the lollipop back into his mouth and sighed.

“I know what you mean.”

That surprised him.  Gaius, at least with him, was all confidence and self-assurance.

“Huh?”

At that, he sighed and brought his hands to the tunic he wore.

“Watch, Blue.  And know that I’m doing this ‘cause I love ya.”

He began undoing his belts and straps and finally lifted up his tunic with two hands.  Chrom frowned, unsure as to what he was supposed to be looking at.  He knew Gaius was self-conscious was the tattoo on his arm but he was just...showing him his midsection.  It didn’t look any different from what Chrom saw when they were in bed.  It was freckled, pale and swelled outwards from under his ribcage into a soft, pudgy belly.  He loved Gaius’s body.  How his arms and legs were lithe and limber, his finger dexterous, and his belly warm and soft.

“My sweet tooth puts me in pretty bad shape.” He slapped a hand on it and sighed. “I hate this tanker I’ve got here.”

That surprised him.  Not that Gaius was self-conscious about a part of himself but that it was something that Chrom adored.  A candle flickered alive in his head.  Oh, that was what he was trying to say.  Gaius was sensitive about his stomach the same way Chrom was sensitive about his backside.  That Gaius liked his rear didn’t dissuade him from feeling embarrassed by it and Chrom’s affection for his belly didn’t mean he liked it any more.

“Oh.”

Gaius slipped his arms around his waist and palmed his rear.

“I love it and you don’t and, if your attention to it in the sack is any indication, you love this.” He gestured to himself. “And I don’t.”

Chrom nodded, unsure of what else to say.

“We can’t make each other love these things about us but, hey, we can still enjoy ‘em on each other, right?”

“Uh, right.”

Gaius smirked and started directing him towards the bed.

“Good.  Now let’s get busy.  I’ve been wantin’ to stick my tongue in that ass of yours since this conversation began.”

 


End file.
